I haven't posted this question although I've wanted to, because I was hoping it would fade out.... Recently my husband and I have allowed Otis to sleep in bed with us, he's just about 5 months old now. He usually does wonderfully (besides his occasional squirminess!) and the benefits are of course that he gets to be close to us, we get to cuddle with him, and he'll stay settled with us much longer than when he sleeps in the crate. But..... A few times when he's curled in a ball (always this position) and either sleeping or about to sleep, if we go to move him (not kick him off, but just move him a few inches or whatever because he's in a silly spot) he'll let out a low growl. Does this sound like resource guarding? Our trainer visited us last night and seems to think that maybe it's just that he's sort of half asleep and startled rather than resource guarding. If he's on the bed and we approach the bed, we've never had an incident... It's always when we actually touch him as if we're going to move him. Also, it's not every single time. While we're much more careful of moving him too quickly now, we have moved him hundreds of times without a problem. In fact, it hadn't happened in ~2 weeks and I was hoping it was gone! Our trainer basically suggested that we make sure he's fully awake before we attempt to move him, and if it continues we'll need to start working on training for resource guarding our bed. I feel like it Meets the criteria for resource guarding and he's just being hopeful that it's not. Any experience or advice regarding this would be wonderful. It makes me so nervous because (as I've mentioned in another post) he's recently become so afraid of new visitors and strangers and growls at them. It's soooooo upsetting to try to do everything right from 8 weeks on to only encounter serious issues like these! I don't want Otis to end up being a fearful adult dog who growls all the time at us and/or other people! Behavior-wise, those are our only issues with him. He's 100% potty trained, knows many commands fairly well, and is absolutely attached to us. Of course he's 5 months old so he's hyper and naughty 80% of the time, but no other negative behaviors to report.
I didn't want to just scoot past your post after reading it but I haven't got the experience to help you with bed growling....does it just happen on your bed?if you tried to move him when he was asleep somewhere else does he do it? Dexter went through a stage where he was really quite anxious about people arriving at the house ...he wasn't growling but he would have his hackles up and there was a lot of barking.I had a trainer round who saw this when she was helping me with something else.She Suggested that he needed a'task ' to do when visitors arrived to distract him...so we taught him to go to his room and wait.then he needs to be quiet and we open the gate,if he barks ,he goes back in,then he gets told to go on his bed,then he is finally released to go and see who has arrived and he copes really well now.this mightnsound like a right rigmarole and it did take time to achieve but it only takes a couple of minutes now if that.Also Dexter is 3 and this chain has been built gradually over time so I'm not suggesting you aim for this straight away but you can start small...If you have a secure area you can take him to when the door goes ,pop him in and throw a handful of treats in when the door bell goes.Hes's safe and preoccupied with treats while you concentrate on initial greetings of your visitor.I also recruited a helper ( my long suffering non dog loving sister !) and used to practice the door bell ringing and sending Dexter to his room.....'his job' he does it automatically now when the door goes.Something in that might help you a bit to ease his anxiety a bit. Angela x
My experience with rescue Millie might help a little ? When we first had her two and a half years ago , she bonded mostly with me which could have been a problem as our resident Lab Sam has me stamped right through him . She would want to come onto the sofa by my side, but would then growl if Sam came close or even if my husband cant close , so off the sofa she went and is still not allowed onto it . The compromise was that she was allowed on my husbands chair which took a little time but she is now very happy to know her place in the household and doesn't even attempt to get onto the sofa any more . It all depends on the nature of the dog really , some do guard any resource and it is a habit you need to break , gently and slowly . Dogs can and do growl if they are awakened from a deep sleep and someone disturbs them , so yes, you need to know if this is the case or if it is guarding . I also agree with Angela re the visitors issue , very good advice, good luck x
Thank you... and no he really doesn't do it everywhere, just the bed. There may have been one time that he did it on the couch.... It's also hard to say what's going on because out of the hundreds of times that we've moved him, he's probably done it 5 times total. It's so few and far between that it's hard to tell exactly what is triggering it. From what I understand sometimes dogs will growl when you approach them on a couch or bed because they're resource guarding, but that's not the case here. He is only doing it when we actually touch him to move him. While we're figuring it out, any time we need to move him we've been giving him a treat right after we tough him, nudge him, etc.... so hopefully even just doing that will form a positive association with being moved or touched when he's in that balled up position.
